While looking at the contemporary luxury retail landscape, very often the focus is on fashion; Retail in Asia wanted to explore how other luxury sectors are coping with digital transformation and emerging trends.
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Retail in Asia has met Mr. Amaury La Fonta, General Manager at Maserati South East Asia Pacific, to embark on a journey into automotive retail.
Maserati, with its heritage of design and history, is the perfect example of how an over 100 year-old business has been embracing digital transformation and diversity.
Amaury explained how Maserati has been focusing on innovation, by extending its product line to target millennials, like Levante for example. The new model, which was also the protagonist of an e-commerce experiment with Alibaba in China, which concluded with sales of 100 cars in less than 18 seconds.
In automotive retail, the purchase requires a high-involvement, and digital comes in as complementary with the physical store experience, to facilitate appointments in the showrooms and reach consumers who live in cities in which Maserati has not opened a showroom yet. The brand has estimated indeed that 50% of the consumers are actually not living in cities, where Maserati has a physical presence.
Digital has been used for in-store experience, namely silent salesmen, car configurators, apps for store location based on the models, but also WeChat, and the development of apps for Maserati owners.
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Besides the implementation of digital solutions, Maserati has also embraced a 360 degree lifestyle branding activation, which span from installation in malls and airports like Dubai, associations with Made in Italy products such as gastronomic events with Balsamic vinegar from Modena, where the brand has its headquarters, and partnerships with Italian brands like Zegna, presence at art exhibitions and events like Art Dubai and The Longines Masters of Hong Kong.
Watch the video to learn more about how Maserati is conveying the ultimate luxury experience for its customers.